Buzzfeed is one of the world's largest social news websites and one of the most shared on Facebook. It's known for pioneering 'listicles' which are lists of facts more easily digested and shared on the web. However, it also allows you to create your own content. Here's what happened when one comms officer did so.
by Karen Jeal
It’s that time of year again at Gravesham where we get all green fingered and the town looks blooming marvellous as part of our efforts to scoop the top prize for Gravesham in Bloom.
Although this year is different. The stakes and stems, for that matter, are higher. We won Gold last year so expectations are at an absolute max to grow for gold once more.
So now the judging is over we want to continuing to keep the town looking lovely and sustain the anticipation until judgement day, which is in September.
So we’ve taken to a platform where we can share some new content and keep people interested. That’s Buzzfeed. It sounds like some sort of planting term that helps the bees get their pollen. But in fact it’s a social space to share content.
It’s currently notching up more than 200m users worldwide and it’s great for small councils like us as there are community accounts.
We’ve showcased in a post the 30 ways we’ve been growing for gold for the competition in pictures. It’s been a really good way for us to capture all the work that’s been done but also to share it among different audiences. It allows us to tell a really lovely community story. We can now take this link (here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/graveshamcouncil/gravesham-in-bloom-1q8e6 and distribute it among some of our other channels.
And so far, the response has been good! It’s also an even simpler way for people to see what we’ve been doing rather than having to trawl through the likes of Twitter feeds and Facebook walls to see.
We’re also planning on using it more in the future, in particular for our other key events and campaigns – 10 reasons you should come to Gravesend this Christmas, as an example.
So watch this space and give Buzzfeed a go yourself!
Karen Jeal is digital officer at Gravesham Borough Council.
